The “Internet of Things” (IoT) is a network of physical devices (i.e., “things”) specially designed for specific functions, unlike general computing devices like desktop or laptop computers or even smart phones and tablets. IoT devices are embedded with electronics and provided with network connectivity that enable these devices to collect, store and exchange data. The network connectivity may include, for example, Bluetooth® connectivity, Wi-Fi connectivity, and/or cellular network connectivity. An IoT device may additionally have computational capability, with various software (e.g., apps) and sensors. An IoT device may be controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure. An IoT device may use the network connectivity to communicate with other IoT devices, or other types of devices (e.g., a particular server or computer) across the Internet.
As IoT networks continue to evolve, different providers and vendors have developed differing models, protocols, and ontological and semantic architectures to support the implementation of their respective IoT networks. Accordingly, devices and networks associated with particular providers or vendors may not be interoperable with other providers and vendors.
To address these limitations, some consideration has been given to standardizing the semantic models. Unfortunately, it has been determined that previously established domain models, name spaces and languages are not easily supplanted, thus rendering any standardization attempt incomplete at best.